Today in Keys History – November 15, 2024
1908 – Captain A.B. Potter of the R.G. Ross Construction Company arrived to begin work on raising the east jetty of the Northwest Channel. The work required six months and 30,000 tons of Massachusetts granite to complete.
1948 – The Key West City Commission voted to change the name of Division Street to Truman Avenue in honor of President Truman’s visit to the city.
1950 – Shirley J. Garson became the first woman in Key West to become a U.S. Coast Guard-licensed charter boat captain.
1960 – An oil rig from Trinidad arrived at Stock Island for inspection by U.S. Customs. The rig was bound for the Marquesas Keys where a California company planned to drill a test well.
1974 – Margaux Hemingway, 19-year-old granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, was in Key West to model for a Town & Country magazine feature. Shoots at the Hemingway house and other sites around town were scheduled.
1993 – Judge Regan Ptomey rejected a retrial for Rocky, the 7-pound Chihuahua who managed to impregnate Camella, an 80-pound Rottweiler. Rocky’s owner had been ordered to pay $2,567.50 in damages.
1999 – Monroe County Reform Party leaders May and Ray Chote met the party’s prospective presidential candidate Donald Trump in Miami. Both Chotes found Trump to be quite affable.
Information compiled by Dr. Corey Malcom, Lead Historian, Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.
Image: President Harry Truman passes St. Mary Star of the Sea Church on Division Street during a 1947 visit to Key West. The Scott DeWolfe Collection. Monroe County Public Library, Florida Keys History Center.